I have a "hidden treasure story" worthy of printing
Before I was even born, my grandparents moved to the United States from Italy. With them, they freighted hundreds of antiques and even more furniture. They collected marble furniture from Italy and France and had some of the nicest pieces I have ever seen, almost all worthy of Sotheby's. During the Depression, my grandfather hid thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gold coins (his family came from little money and he was more than scared of loosing what he had worked so hard for). At the time, he owned a winery and was a huge investor, and about five years before the Depression he bought the gold (at least I was told five years, but the time could be different).
Anyway, I got sidetracked
He buried half of the gold, during the Depression, on his Vineyard (in Napa Valley, California) and most of the other half in his house. Eventually, he died, and had never unburied his gold (it is there to this day) and my family sold the Winery. My father and his brothers got the gold hidden in the house, but no one wanted the furniture (I can see those gasping faces of yours
). The furniture was taken by who knows whom and the house was sold with the winery. But that's not the treasure story. I was visiting an old friend of my father's (his parents had also been friends of my grandparents) in California a few years ago and we were sitting, talking, when I noticed his dining room table, which I had never seen before. It was an Italian piece, marble top, and I instantly recognized it as my grandfather's. My father had apparently given the table to him. I got to looking at it and noticed the legs were really strange, they were actually straight, not like the tradition style most of their other pieces were. The straight leg style I believe is also more French, not Italian. So anyway, we started examining the table more and were able to take a leg off (it was hand carved and the leg could sort of "slide" out if a fair amount of pressure was applied. Imagine our surprise when we found that the table leg was firstly, hollow, and secondly.... FILLED WITH GOLD COINS! There were five legs on the table, one in the center, and they were all filled hundreds of gold coins! It really makes me wonder what else was hidden in his furniture, I know that habit has definitely passed down through our family!
My uncle also used to tell me a story when I was fairly young about my grandfather's gold cane. The stick of the cane was solid cherry, but the top was a small round gold piece. Whenever you shook the cane, something in the top would rattle. My uncle inherited the cane, and temptation finally overcame him. He pried the top off, and inside was a diamond. This diamond, cut in a unique brilliancy, was the diamond my grandfather had received in a trade for a very large chunk of Telegraph Hill! See, the diamond was actually the dot on the end of a gold question mark. I really wish I had known my grandfather better, and I really, really, wish we still had his furniture and antiques.
So anyway, back to the table. He (the friend of the family) decided that he would keep the table as it was, not removing any coins, for some future treasure hunter to find.
Just thought I'd share, as these stories always have interested me. Do diamonds have any historical value?